The last Founder
by yellow 14
Summary: The last founding wizard of Hogwarts needs to be convinced to join the enterprise. Written for HedwigBlack's Weekly Challenge.


Disclaimer: Don't own and never will.

AN: Written for HedwigBlack's Weekly Challenge. It was originally written for another one of her weekly challenges, but it suited this one better.

Salazar Slytherin felt at peace amongst the fields surrounding his home in Norfolk, shuttered away from the world in general and away from the muggles most of all. Handling his precious snakes in the wild, talking to them made him forget, at least temporarily, the aching emptiness in his heart that his grandson's death had left in his heart.

It wasn't Alex's fault he couldn't control his magic, not his fault that it exploded out in front of those cruel, mindless muggles. He was only a child after all, barely seven years old and far too young to have much control over his magic. But they killed him just the same. Salazar arrived too late to save him, but he made sure the muggles paid a heavy price for their crime.

However, in the fields around his home, more marsh than anything else, he was well aware of when he was being followed. And he knew full well who was following him as well. Lifting his wand, he pointed it at a bush and muttered a few words in Parseltongue.

"Merlin Salazaar!" Godric complained as he shot out of the bushes, rubbing his bum and an expression of annoyance. "How did you know I was there?"

Salazaar Slytherin smirked at his old friend and shook his head.

"Godric, if you wanted to surprise me, you should have picked another means of surprising me and another place than my own marshes," he said dryly with a smirk. He omitted to mention that the snakes had picked Godric up first and had hissed a warning to him. Godric frowned and shrugged his shoulders.

"Where's the fun in that?" he asked and Salazaar raised an eyebrow.

"You wouldn't get hurt?" Salazaar replied, before his expression turned dark. "I thought I'd already made my opinions clear on the subject to Rowena."

"What subject?" Godric asked in what he supposed was meant to look like an expression of innocence. Unfortunately for Godric Gryffindor, Salazaar Slytherin was an expert at picking up falsehoods and Godric wasn't particularly good at lying.

"Godric my old friend, you should really stick to battle magic," he said with amusement. "You're no good at lying."

"That's why I have you," Godric replied, before looking Salazaar a firm look. "Very well, I'm here to try talk to you about Rowena's school. She thought I might be able to persuade you into joining us in this no-"

"After what happened to my grandson, I am unlikely to want to be around children," Salazaar pointed out grimly. "I'm not a hero like you Godric, saving maidens in distress and those filthy muggles you insist on mingling with. The grief would be painful enough. And who would you take as students? No, it is not for me."

"Salazaar, you are a different type of hero and a different type of wizard to me," Godric said as he looked up at his friend. "You were a spy, a secretive and deadly assassin who had to smile at his enemies and pretend while stabbing them in the back. "Please Salazaar, we have lost enough magical knowledge from fighting the Morganna warriors. The Jastors and the Clemences. The Thoras and the Merlin's. All that magical knowledge lost to a new generation of witches and wizards, forever destroyed in a flash."

"Setting up a school sounds like inviting the next Dark Lord to have a go at wiping us all out in one swoop. Our strengths will protect us, our secrets will remain our greatest strengths," Salazaar said firmly as he pulled himself up to his full height. "Disseminating them will help our enemies fight us better."

"Or it will provide us with an army to fight back better and sooner," Godric argued back, mentally groaning as he felt the beginnings of an argument and when it came to words, it was Rowena and Salazaar who were experts of this field, not Godric. Suddenly Salazaar gave a chuckle.

"I have heard all of Rowena's arguments old friend. There is nothing you can say that I have not already heard her say before," he told Godric. "Could you imagine it would last? We are all very different individuals, with very different ideas how to form such an enterprise."

"Rowena plans for us to have separate houses for our students," Godric said and Salazaar raised an eyebrow.

"Yes I know that. She explained her plans to me before I left," Salazaar said. "And my response is the same now as it was then. Why would I do that when I could just as easily teach my own students on their own?"

Godric groaned aloud this time and he grimaced. Why Rowena Ravenclaw had sent him out to persuade Salazaar was beyond him. He knew full well that she thought that Salazaar was more likely to listen to him, but he did not share her intellect, or her ability to argue her cause.

"As it so happens, I have been giving the matter some thought," Salazaar continued, ignoring Godric's groan. "The costs of building a school, a building of stone and mortar are simply too much for my own resources. I would run out of money before the building was complete."

"All the more reason for us to work together! Rowena is offering her castle as a base for us to work on, what more could we need?" Godric said exasperatedly. "Together we would be stronger, just like old times. Do you remember what we said to one another before that final battle?"

"If we hold on tight, we'll hold each other together, and not just be some fools rushing to die in our sleep." Salazaar said dryly as he recalled Godric's exact words. "Yes I remember those days."

"Then come and join us. In memory of those days," Godric said passionately and Salazaar winced.

"I will come," Salazaar said wearily. "But on the promise that you will as well."

"You can guarantee that, you have my word," Godric said with a smile and Salazaar rolled his eyes.

"Fortunately for you, your word is the one thing I trust," he said dryly. "I see why Rowena sent you."

"Oh?"

"Yes Rowena would reason with me, but you go straight for the heart," Salazaar said with a smirk. "It's so positively devious of her, I'm almost impressed."


End file.
